The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, arrived at his meeting this Thursday with Donald Trump at the White House with a mission above all others: try to start his interlocutor the granting of credible security guarantees for Ukraine once a high fire is remembered in the negotiations that Washington has launched with Moscow on the end of the war. The US president was optimistic with the negotiations with Kremlin: “Russia is behaving very well. We advance in a peace agreement. ” In the statements at the beginning of the meeting in the Oval Office, he said that “it is the guarantee of security” for the invaded country. “We are a support because we will be there, working in the country, it will be very good economically for them,” Trump said.
The Economic Agreement provides that Ukraine gives to the United States half of its exploitation income of its mineral resources, including gas and oil, as payment for military aid received during the three years of war. Washington alleges that having that pact gives him an incentive to defend the invaded country, as he also protects his economic investment. But the document of the document does not include security guarantees.
In his statements at the beginning of the meeting in the Oval Office, which will continue with a lunch and a joint press conference, Trump also stressed that there must first be a stop the fire and “we still don’t have it.” The Republican, who repeated his usual complaints that the United States contributes disproportionately to NATO, was again praised, as we usually, with Russia, the aggressor country in the war. “Russia is behaving very well” in, “we advance in a peace agreement.”
In Trump’s opinion, once an agreement has been closed, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will not have incentives to invade Ukrainian territory. The Republican took advantage of his meeting to add nuances to the results that he provides for negotiations with Moscow. He ruled out, as he has done on several occasions, that kyiv can enter NATO. But he also argued that he will try to make Ukraine recover the greatest possible proportion of occupied territory, currently 20% of the total. Two weeks ago, he declared in Brussels that it was “unrealistic” to think that the invaded country could recover the entire territory occupied since 2014, when Russia was annexed by Crimea and the fighting began in the Donbás region.
For his part, Starmer began his statements ensuring: “We want to collaborate with you to ensure that the peace agreement is durable, that we achieve a historical agreement like no one has achieved. And we want to collaborate with you to make sure what happens. ”
The signing of the Minerals Agreement with Ukraine arrives a week after Trump and Zelenski exchanged disdainful words, and even insults, for their disagreement around that pact. The Republican came to qualify the Ukraine, falsely, for “dictator without elections” and held him responsible for the outbreak of the war. Zelenski, meanwhile, accused him of living in “a bubble of de -information” of Russian propaganda. That warm seemed to have been forgotten. Asked by a journalist if he kept believing that Ukraine is a dictator, Trump replied this Thursday: “I said that?”
The meeting between Trump and Starmer focuses on matters such as tariffs with which the US president threatens Europe and collaboration in artificial intelligence. But above all it was going to be focused on the war in Ukraine and the negotiations of the Trump administration to reach a high fire agreement with Moscow, that the allies in the old continent – and Kiev – fear that they will result in a pact with unacceptable conditions for the invaded country.
After Trump’s Washington has abandoned the American doctrine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, of unconditional support to Ukraine “during the time that is needed”, the Republican insists again and again that attending the invaded country or contributing means to guarantee the fulfillment of the hypothetical high fire is not a problem of the US, but of Europe.
Security guarantees have become one of the main pitfalls between Washington and Europe in their positions on war. Several European countries, including France and the United Kingdom, have expressed their willingness to contribute soldiers for a limited peace force that would be responsible for monitoring compliance with the hypothetical high fire. But by themselves those troops would not have a sufficient deterrence effect to prevent Moscow from attacking again in the future. The continent, and kyiv, claim that the United States guarantees that it will provide support between scenes – vigilance through radar systems, combat airplanes – that would go in Socorro in case of Russian danger, something that Trump resists granting. The French president, who preceded Starmer on Monday with a similar mission, left empty -handed in this area.
Bridge between Europe and Washington
Starmer, who has seemed to connect with Trump in his previous contacts, tries to present himself as a bridge between Europe and Washington, the “good police”, to try to start more flexibility to the Republican leader. Before starting his trip, he announced an increase in GDP compared to the current 2.3%. By 2035 the expenditure proportion is expected to reach 3%. Something that the White House, which insists on the need for NATO partners to increase their military spending, has taken a good note: “We are very pleased with that announcement,” said a high American position that spoke under the condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, the British prime minister reiterated his call for the United States to contribute a “support” of security to those European forces. That guarantee, he claimed, would give kyiv a lasting peace, instead of a mere temporary interruption of a violence that would return once the Russian forces have recovered from the wear and tear of the last three years. The British prime minister also intends to make it clear that there can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine. “It will also recognize the need for Europe to fulfill its part in the global defense and take a step forward, for the good of European collective security,” according to British sources.
“The conversations about the modality of security guarantees are developing,” said the high US position, which ruled out that Washington will contribute troops on the ground. “Any force that there will be less a deterrent element than a peace force … The type of force will depend a lot on the political agreement that is achieved to end the war, and I believe that negotiation is part of what leaders will speak in their meeting,” he added.
Starmer’s visit to the White House on Thursday is the third in his seven months as Prime Minister, but the first after the landing of the Republican Administration. The trip had unleashed a great expectation in the United States, where the former British ambassador to Washington Kim Darroch described the encounter between the two leaders as “one of the most transcendent between a British prime minister and a president of the United States since World War II.” Both had been seen once in person, when they shared a lunch at the Trump Tower in New York last September.
